In all his tales, so far,
he has surpassed all predecessors in his descriptions of the sea; and
the critics, when favorably disposed, fell into the habit of referring
to him as "the novelist of the sea," "the poet of the ocean," etc. The
Norwegian sailor, whom he may be said to have revealed in "The Pilot,"
came to be considered more and more as his property; and no one can read
such tales as "Press On" (_Gaa Paa_) and "Rutland" without agreeing that
the title is well merited. I know of no English novelist since Smollett,
who produces so deep a sense of reality in his descriptions of maritime
life. Mr. Clark Russell, who knows his ship from masthead to keel as
thoroughly as Jonas Lie, and writes fully as clever a story, seems to me
to have a lower aim, in so far as the novel of adventure, _caeteris
paribus_, belongs on a lower level than the novel of character.
In the year 1874 the Norwegian Storthing conferred upon Jonas Lie an
annual "poet's salary" of about six hundred dollars. This is supposed to
supply a warranty deed to a lot on Parnassus.
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